Fadal 4020A RS232 communication (receiving) problems

Hello, everyone!

Have been working with my Fadal for about half a year right now and today I stumbled across problem that I just can't figure out. Long story short I am sending my programs to CNC via RS232 cable, Cimco program on my PC. Suddenly today CNC is not responding to my actions on computer - type TA (or TA,1, doesn't matter) on CNC, press Enter. CNC is waiting for a program to receive. Then I am pressing "SEND" in my Cimco software and everything looks fine right there. It shows that program is sent like it normally does. But in reality nothing happens on CNC, it still shows TA, waiting for a program to be sent.

Went through all my COM port, Cimco, CNC, Baud rate etc. settings and everything is correct like it was for this half year. Cable wiring looks good to me just like before.

What could be the problem and do you have any suggestions? Could it be CNC hardware?

Thanks in advance, hoping for help asap.

Hello, I just went through something similar last week. I was making parts all week, then on friday, I could not send anything to the mill. I did a loopback test on my computer and on the Fadal. The computer checked out ok, but not so at the Fadal. I pulled the card and cleaned the contacts, but, still no luck. I then attempted to clean the contacts on the Fadal's RS232 cable connectors with some alcohol and then pressed the two IDC connectors (the DB25 and the one that goes to the board) to make sure the wires were seated.

I don't know if it was luck , but, I put everything back together and I was sending code to the Fadal again ...like nothing ever happened.

if you still have trouble call Home Page - Calmotion and get their USB for the fadal and you can also just send the files thru WiFi or USB

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Originally Posted by slowtwitch

Hello, I just went through something similar last week. I was making parts all week, then on friday, I could not send anything to the mill. I did a loopback test on my computer and on the Fadal. The computer checked out ok, but not so at the Fadal. I pulled the card and cleaned the contacts, but, still no luck. I then attempted to clean the contacts on the Fadal's RS232 cable connectors with some alcohol and then pressed the two IDC connectors (the DB25 and the one that goes to the board) to make sure the wires were seated.

I don't know if it was luck , but, I put everything back together and I was sending code to the Fadal again ...like nothing ever happened.

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Cleaned every contact with contact cleaner aswell and checked every seat, still no changes. Could you tell me more about loopback test? How can you do that?

As I said, cleaned everything, double checked wiring, tried different tests to find the communication issue but with no result. Only thing that I have found out is that sending files from CNC to Cimco program works well using PU command. Wrote a little program on CNC, sent it using PU command and received file on my PC with zero problems. That makes me think that connection is fine.

Rodney, thanks for suggestion, I should do it in future but right now I need to fix this issue asap.
Any more recommendations?

Update:

Did the following 1030 Board test today with the DB25 plug I found in CNC today:
a. Move to the cold start position.
b. From the command mode type DI then press ENTER.
c. Type G0 3000 and press ENTER to enter the test menu.
d. Press 4 to select the RS-232 (1030) test.
e. Select a baud rate (usually the baud rate used in normal communications).
f. Observe the screen.
• Numbers next to the word TESTING should be changing constantly.This is good, and the 1030 board has passed the test.
• The numbers at the end of the other sentences should all be zero. Anynumbers appearing at the end of these sentences indicates that the1030 board is faulty (assuming the cable was checked in step (2)above).

My results were following:
There was no number in "Testing..." line
Transmit not ready 0000
No character received from serial port 0009 <<< this one is constantly changing
Character received is not what was sent 0000

Does that mean my 1030 board is faulty?

Problem sorted out!

Thanks a lot to user named "Cfin" on this forum. This is the only thread I stumbled across about the same problem. Quoting his last post:

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I think I was over-complicating the issue here and tying myself in knots......
The problem was the RS232 receive chip on the 1030 board, I removed the original and replaced it with a socket and new #1498 IC ..... simplified the cable to the bare 3 wire null modem and away it went ..... $4 cost ....

However I think its worth mentioning - I think I now understand what the Fadal RS232 diagnostic program is telling you -
if the number is changing UNDER the "testing ..... " line ..... it appears both Tx & Rx are not working (at the boards "serial port")
if the number is changing on the next line down (think it says - "character not received at serial port ...... " or something similar) .... the Rx is failing and the Tx is working
if the number is changing on the next line ..... the Tx is failing but the Rx is working

I haven't seen the above when looking for info on how to fix the problem .... so hopefully it may help others in the future.

One last thing - when voltage testing I noticed the PC was (at times) outputting right on +25 volts .... which is right on the limit on standard RS232 standards ..... but the new chip spec has this limit extended to 30volts.
I don't know if that may have caused the problem in the first place but thought it was worth mentioning.

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He was right. The only thing chip number is #1489. We changed that in our 1030 board, then did the same test and it showed zero errors. Numbers were changing next to "Testing" line.
Afterwards sent a program from PC using "TA" function and everything worked perfectly!

Back to work and thanks for help.

Great news!! and thanks for posting the solution to your problem :)